Top 14 Round 2

Toulon bounced back from last week’s shock loss at Bayonne as they defeated Pau while Brive saw off Stade Français on home soil.

17 points from the boot of Leigh Halfpenny proved key as Toulon conceded two tries to the one scored by number eight Charles Ollivon.

In the other fixtures, La Rochelle won at Grenoble, Racing 92 proved too strong for Lyon while Bayonne and Castres played out a draw, with Toulouse getting the better of Bordeaux-Bègles in the late Top 14 game.

La Rochelle came from behind away from home against Grenoble to pull off a 22-19 victory at the Stade des Alpes.

Grenoble improved upon their dismal outing in Round 1 away to Stade Français – when they shipped over 50 points – to lead at the break, thanks to Gio Aplon’s converted try and two penalties from the boot of Jonathan Wisniewski.

La Rochelle had been kept in the game up to half-time thanks to tries from Zeno Kieft and Hika Forbes, with a conversion from new signing Brock James, to trail by a point at the break 12-13.

It was the visitors who then went ahead at the start of the second, Pierre Aguillon setting up Zack Holmes for a score converted by James to make it 19-13.

Wisniewski and James traded further penalties to leave the scoreline finally poised in the closing stages at 22-19, as La Rochelle clung on for the victory.

Following their opening day loss away to UBB this was an instant turnaround from Racing, with centre Henry Chavancy scoring two tries, one either side of half-time.

Frédéric Michalak opened the scoring for Lyon with a penalty and that lead lasted for 14 minutes before Racing responded after a Dan Carter miss.

Juan Imhoff, fresh from featuring in the Sevens at the Olympics in Rio, was put away from an inside ball by Carter to score. Carter couldn’t land the conversion.

Chavancy was next to score with his first try of the match, converted by Carter, but two penalties from Michalak cut the gap to 12-9 by the interval.

Lyon then went down to 14 men at the start of the second half when another new signing, Delon Armitage, was sin-binned for a high tackle for Casey Laulala, and from there Racing pounced. Luc Ducalcon powered his way over before Chavancy grabbed his second after good work from Laulala.

Lyon did hit back with a try from Cameron Mapusua as Racing finished the game with 14 men after Olivier Missoup’s yellow card, but it was too little too late for an upset.

Bayonne and Castres played out a 12-12 draw in their clash as two late penalties from Willie du Plessis proved crucial.

Castres led 6-3 at the break thanks to two penalties from Benjamin Urdapilleta to Du Plessis’ one in a low-scoring opening 40.

Bayonne, who were looking to back up last week’s win over Toulon, could not bust the Castres try-line and had to rely on three more Du Plessis points in the 48th minute. However, Urdapilleta had earlier added his third penalty before a fourth arrived on 55 minutes.

At 12-6, Castres were looking good for the victory but with 10 minutes remaining two penalties from Du Plessis locked things up at 12-12.

That was how things stayed at Stade Jean Dauger as a try-less encounter ended with both teams sharing the spoils to stay unbeaten.

Brive followed up last week’s draw at Lyon with a 28-20 victory over Stade Français, with Gaëtan Germain scoring 25 of his team’s points.

An entertaining opening 40 minutes saw Brive go in 16-13 to the good and their points all came from Germain, who scored a try, conversion and three penalties. In reply the Parisians carded a Sergio Parisse try while Jules Plisson kicked the extra two points and two penalties.

But after the break it was all Brive as the boot of steady full-back Germain, as it has so often in the past, proved decisive. He struck a further three penalties before the hour mark that pushed Brive into a 25-13 lead with a quarter of the game left.

Stade Français did rally in the 75th minute when replacement Hugo Bonneval crossed for a converted try but Brive held on for a narrow win.

Toulouse made it two wins out of two in the early season as they picked up a 22-17 win over Bordeaux-Bègles.

The game was try-less until the 67th minute as only the boots of Sébastien Bézy, Lionel Beauxis and Ian Madigan had troubled the scorers.

In the first-half, Bézy sent over three penalties to Beauxis’ two and Madigan’s one, which meant the contest was locked up at nine apiece.

Bézy then struck in the 50th and 56th minute to push Toulouse six points clear before Madigan reduced that gap back down to three points.

The home outfit finally broke the try-scoring deadlock though when replacement hooker Julien Marchand went over but with full-back Jean-Marcellin Buttin hitting back four minutes later, the game was far from over with Toulouse leading 22-17 due to their extras being missed.

Toulouse managed to hold on though for the victory while Bordeaux-Bègles had the small consolation of going home with a bonus point.